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Technical life span

When an underlay is installed under flooring or in a floor structure, it may be expected that the mat should have a technical life span that matches the rest of the parts in the construction. If the underlay for some reason breaks down or collapses it may have severe consequences. The technicallife span may be taken for granted but there are no product requirements stating expiry dates or characteristics for products like underlay mats. Most commonly the discussion concerns chemical breakdown but the change connected to mechanical wear is equally interesting.

Example: Technical life span test

In cooperation with the faculty of engineering at Lund University, LTH, we have developed a method that will show the effect of mechanical wear (dynamic and static) on an underlay mat. The idea behind the test was to simulate a situation where a corridor frequently was subjected to pedestrians for approx. a year and this was estimated to approx. 150 000 steps.As a comparison we tested a cell foam underlay which is common under laminate flooring. In the graph above we show how the two products “weaken” after a period of use.

The rubber material the Decibel mats are made of has been used by our producer for 50 years. Tests have been carried out on very old underlay mats and the readings on elasticity and compression have been very good (tests according to the BS4052 method have also been carried out, see technical specification for each product). Decibel does not break down with age (chemical process) unless it is exposed to UV light which is irrelevant since the mat never will be exposed to this after it is installed.